Conservatives bash unions and oppose sex-selection abortion in shift to right

Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to delegates during a policy plenary session during the Conservative Convention in Calgary on Saturday.

Photograph by: Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
, Postmedia News

CALGARY — Canada’s grassroots Conservatives have embraced a hard-core shift to the right — adopting new doctrines Saturday that attack unions and public service workers, condemn gender-selection abortions and euthanasia, and protect the rights of gun owners.

The move came as thousands of delegates at the party’s convention passed dozens of motions which now become official party policy.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not bound by the policies, but with his government lagging in the polls and facing a Senate expense scandal that continues to burn, he will come under pressure to adopt some of the contentious policies to satisfy his core base of supporters in the next election.

Among the new Conservative party policies:

— Canadians should not be forced to join unions and pay dues. This is the start of an effort by Conservatives to persuade Harper to introduce a contentious “right-to-work law,” similar to those in some U.S. states, that critics say are a thinly-veiled attempt to destroy unions.

— Federal public service unions and those in federally-regulated industries should tell their members how much of their dues go to political donations, media organizations and other political activism. Union members should be allowed to “opt out” of the portion of their dues that go to such activities.

— Federal public service pensions should be brought in line with those in the public sector, likely meaning they are either slashed now or the rate of future growth is cut. Treasury Board President Tony Clement spoke in favour of the motion and promised it will be an approach he soon takes to the bargaining table to seek concessions from federal unions.

“For too long, there has been this major gap in wages and benefits between the public and the private sector,” said Clement. “This is not sustainable, it’s not right, it’s not conservative, and it’s not in the public interest.”

— The Conservative Party will not support any legislation to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide. This was a motion that sparked strong debate on either side, with one delegate warning that legalized euthanasia would give doctors “the right to directly and intentionally cause your death.”

— The party “condemns discrimination against girls through gender selection” — which means it opposes abortion in cases where the parents don’t want to give birth to a baby girl. British Columbia MP Mark Warawa, who put forward the motion, was blocked by Harper’s team on Parliament Hill when he tried to discuss it in the Commons earlier this year. But Conservative delegates passed his motion easily.

“Right now in the world there are over 200 million missing girls because of the practice of using ultrasounds to find out if it’s a boy or girl,” Warawa told delegates. “Girls have equal value as boys, we should not be discriminating against them in any form.”

— The party pledges that a “Conservative government recognizes the legitimacy of private ownership of firearms and will rest any domestic or international pressure to the contrary.” After the last election, the government moved to kill the long-gun registry, and more recently, it drew sharp criticism in September when it failed to sign an international treaty to regulate the global arms trade.

— The party, whose members have often complained of bias in the CBC, believes the best way to “control” the network is for the government to establish “distinct” budgets for the TV and radio arms of the corporation.

— To properly punish criminals who are convicted of more than one “serious crime”, they should serve their sentences “consecutively rather than concurrently” so that they would spend more time in jail.

About 3,000 Conservatives attended the convention which comes mid-way through the Harper government’s majority mandate.

The Tories hope to score a fourth-straight election victory in 2015 and will spend the next two years preparing their platform.

Harper, who delivered a lengthy speech to delegates Friday night touting his record but refusing to apologize for his government’s actions in the Senate scandal, attended Saturday’s policy debates but kept a low profile. He did not speak to the convention, nor did he provide a news conference to journalists, who were kept away from delegates by convention organizers throughout much of the two-day event.

Industry Minister James Moore said the resolutions passed at conventions are always “important debates” and added those “feed into the platform” presented to Canadians in elections.

But he made it clear that Harper is ultimately in charge of deciding where the party will stand.

“Our mandate as government comes from Canadians in an election campaign. The party chooses the party platform. The leader chooses the election platform. On that basis, we are elected to govern.”

NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen, who attended the convention as an observer, said the Conservatives passed resolutions that are very right wing.

“The Tea Party couldn’t be happier,” he said in reference to the conservative wing of the U.S. Republican party.

Moreover, Cullen said he believes that Harper is allowing an ultra-conservative faction to spread its wings in his party because he needs their votes.

“A desperate prime minister needing to at least shore up his base goes to the lowest common denominator he can find. And this is all the Tea Party North Stuff.”

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